New Delhi: NR Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys in the middle of a storm about corporate governance practices at the company, told CNN-News18 that Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka is doing a good job, but the actions of the board could have been better.
“It is not the Infosys management that concerns me, we are quite happy with Vishal Sikka, he is doing a good job," Murthy told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview.
“Certain acts of the board [regarding] corporate governance could have been better," he said.
He cited the severance package paid to former Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal as a matter of “concern". Bansal was paid a severance package amounting to Rs 17.38 crores, or the equivalent of 24 months of pay. Murthy said he “hoped" it was not hush money – money paid in order to ensure that Bansal did not reveal damaging information on Infosys to his next employer.
The Infosys founder said that no other senior employee of Infosys, including Mohandas Pai, Balakrishnan, Ashok Vemuri or BG Srinivas, had been given a severance package when they quit.
He said there was some “consternation" about the size of the pay out.
"In Infosys itself, we have had 2 CFOs who left before and several other senior people who are on the boards...senior VPs, etc who have such competitive information but we didn't pay anyone of them. So therefore, it has led to some kind of confusion...," he said.
Asked about market speculations that Bansal was paid off because he had damaging information on Infosys, Murthy said: "I hope it is not the case."
Former executives Mohandas Pai, Ashok Vemuri, V Balakrishnan and B G Srinivas were never paid any severance pay, he added.
Infosys, however, has denied any governance lapses.
"The board is fully aligned with the strategic direction of Dr Vishal Sikka and is very appreciative of the initiatives taken by him in pursuance of this transformation," Infosys Chairman R Seshasayee said in a statement.
"Vishal and the board, while being pleased with the company's resumption of industry leading performance on many parameters, are keen to further accelerate the progress and achieve even more shareholder value increase, on the foundation of sound governance. We will remain undistracted with this focus," he added.
Biocon Chairperson and independent director on Infosys board Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said there has been no breach in governance issues, but there may be "judgement calls" on which the board members differ with promoters.
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